Languages

Egypt

Last week - we were alarmed by news from our sisters in Nazra Feminist Studies in Egypt about the summoning of their staff by the Egyptian court for their alleged breach of the controversial law on receiving "foreign funding". This is just one of a series of events of what seems to be an orchestrated clampdown on Egyptian human rights organisations and which could cripple their activities in defending the rights of others.

A court is expected to rule on the asset freeze ordered against two prominent human rights defenders: Gamal Eid, a lawyer who heads

The issue of Violence against Women in the public sphere has been a major source of concern over the past few years, especially in the four years following the January 25th Revolution in 2011. Discussion of what Women have to endure in the public sphere became commonplace on many platforms, including the media and social networking sites. It has also become a leading item on the agendas of many feminist organizations and various groups which seek to confront the exacerbating and increasingly frequent phenomenon.

President Abdel Fattal al-Sisi has pardoned 100 young people serving time for charges including violating the protest law, the president's Facebook page announced on Wednesday. The pardon comes the day before Sisi departs for New York to meet with the United Nations General Assembly.

Sunday June 21 will mark one year since Egyptian human rights defender Yara Sallam and 22 others were arrested in the Cairo district of Heliopolis. She's been in jail since then, along with six other women who were arrested at the same time in connection with a peaceful protest. Sanaa Seif, sister of prominent jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, is one of these six women. They have all been sentenced to two years in prison.

Egypt’s women and opposition face unprecendented levels of state-sanctioned sexualised violence, despite President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's promises to uphold Egyptian revolutionaries’ calls for ‘freedom’, ‘justice’ and ‘dignity’ when he took over nearly two years ago.

An Alexandria court has sentenced Egyptian activist and human rights lawyer Mahienour El-Masry and two others to one year and three months in prison over “storming” a police station in 2013 during the reign of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.